Hour Photo/Alex von Kleydorff Austin McChord, CEO and Founder of Datto stands in a room filled with brand new office chairs ready to be unwrapped and placed in a new space his company expanding to and is re fitting at 101 Merritt View in Norwalk

Hour Photo/Alex von Kleydorff Austin McChord, CEO and Founder of Datto stands in a room filled with brand new office chairs ready to be unwrapped and placed in a new space his company expanding to and is re

NORWALK -- A Norwalk-based data backup company has been drawn into the investigation of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's use of private email for official business during her time as Secretary of State.

In a letter Monday, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, asked Datto, Inc. CEO Austin McChord to clarify the company's "role relating to Secretary Clinton's private server, the backup and security capabilities of the private server, and any directives provided to Datto relating to the server."

"Please produce all documents and communications between or among employees or contractors of Datto and employees of Platte River Networks, Clinton Executive Services Corp. (CESC), and any other party referring or relating to Secretary Clinton's private server or any backup device," wrote Johnson. "Please produce all contracts between Datto and Platte River Networks, CESC, or any other party referring or relating to Secretary Clinton's private service or any backup device."

Johnson has asked McChord to provide that and other information to the committee by Oct. 19.

Datto, Inc., based at 101 Merritt 7 in Norwalk, provides "comprehensive backup, recovery and business continuity solutions used by thousands of managed service providers worldwide."

"Datto's 160+ PB purpose-built cloud and family of software and hardware devices provide Total Data Protection everywhere business data lives. Whether your data is on-prem in a physical or virtual server, or in the cloud via SaaS applications, only Datto offers end-to-end recoverability and single-vendor accountability," according to the company's website.

Datto did not immediately respond for comment Tuesday on Sen. Johnson's request for information.

At issue is Clinton's use of her personal email account for government business during her time as Secretary of State and whether deleted emails may be recovered.

Last month, Clinton acknowledged that her use of a private email server was a "mistake."

Clinton spoke to the matter during an interview with ABC World News Tonight host David Muir on Sept. 8.

"I am confident by the end of this campaign people will know they can trust me. And that I will be on their side and will fight for them and their families. But I do think I could have and should have done a better job answering questions earlier," Clinton told Muir.

Republicans have continued to hammer her on the issue.

"Clinton went to extraordinary lengths to hide her email from government oversight. Her camp's actions went to so far that company maintaining her server was concerned about being roped into a 'cover up,'" said Raffi Williams, spokesman for the Republican National Committee. "With the FBI investigating and new troubling developments seemingly breaking daily, it's clear Clinton can't be trusted in the White House."

Upon learning of the inquiry regarding the Norwalk company, Norwalk Republican Town Committee Chairman Peter K. Torrano said nothing has been proven yet.

"My hope is a Norwalk company did not allow themselves to get involved in this controversy and do anything untoward," Torrano said.

According to information received by the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Johnson wrote, Platte River Networks (PRN) billed the Clinton Executive Service Corp. on May 31, 2013, to acquire a Datto SIRIS S2000 device.

"Essentially, if the primary server fails, the Datto device acts as a virtual server to allow continued workflow while the primary server is fixed," wrote Johnson in his letter to McChord.

"When Secretary Clinton's private server was moved from her private residences to the New Jersey-based data center, PRN set up the Datto SIRIS device at this new location," Johnson continued.